First senior league playoff title won by Radio Shack

By C. Scott Holland

Back in the spring of 1979, the newly formed Leamington Senior Men’s Hockey League held their very first playoffs.

It was a round-robin affair where all six teams would play the five other opponents once and the team with the best record would win. In case of a tie, a plus-minus formula would be used to determine the winner.

That season, the Hostess Chippers won the regular season with a 12-7-1 record thanks to the stellar scoring of Greg Coulter, who potted 31 goals and added 31 assists in 19 games. They entered the playoffs as the favourite and finished at the bottom of the heap.

But the second-place Radio Shack Realistics fared well and ended up meeting the Southland Insurance Wings in the final week with the title on the line.

COULTER

It was fitting that the finals match was the very last contest of the three games played on the final night. The Realistics surged to a convincing 4-0 lead and then hung on to secure a 5-3 victory to claim the first title.

The Radio Shack offense started early as Bill Baird notched a goal at 1:20 of the first period when he fired a nifty backhander from the slot to beat the Wings’ Wayne Gillett.

However Gillett was stellar through the next two periods, as he halted 15 of the 16 shots he faced in the first and another seven in the second.

ROPCHAN

The score stood at 1-0 until the third but Southland was stymied by the goaltending of Realistics’ Ken Gillanders.

The Radio Shack breakthrough came at 2:23 of the third when Dan Morgan converted a rebound and later he would fire his second of the game with a shot that eluded everyone and slipped between Gillett’s pads and into the net.

Paul Child, who finished second in the regular season with 59 points, then ripped the handiwork of Jim Bowman and Richard Ropchan, to make it 4-0 for the Realistics. Child’s tally stood as the eventual game-winning goal.

CHILD

With 4:25 left on the clock, Southland began a rally that dented the Radio Shack crew’s confidence. Ken Cobby set up Jim Banyai, who rifled the opening Wings’ goal.

Next, Cobby whisked a screen shot into the Radio Shack cage.

Under sudden pressure, Jim Bowman stole a pass and made it a 5-2 contest before Cobby planted his second of the night. Gillett was lifted for an extra attacker in the final minute, but the Wings could draw no closer and Radio Shack claimed a 5-3 victory and the playoff title.

The winning Realistics team consisted of Ken Gillanders (goal), George Sherman, Wayne Shewfelt, Keith Brown, Kent Williams, George Longland, Paul Child, Randy Armstrong, Wayne McKeen, Richard Ropchan, Dan Morgan, Jim Bowman, Rick Sudds, and Bill Baird.